I was going to type a huge long report on wonderful Vienna and I will - tomorrow! I%26#39;m not so much jet-lagged as feeling, a little, the effects of turbulence as we left Schwechat. As ever, Wien was wonderful. Roley, when you go (how long now?) look out for the busker at night on Kaerntnerstrasse with the little dog that looks like Krampus!!!!!
Bis Morgen! Papa!
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Ach! fab! Look forward to hearing alllll about it (esp. the concert in Steffl - how was that? And the opera?) Looks like you had v. mild, if damp, weather too. I%26#39;m off again 12 days ... not that I%26#39;m eager or anything! Where did you eat? Make us squirm with jealousy, go on, do!
xr
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OK, here goes!
We were late out of LBA (of course), so it was a fairly quick change at AMS, an airport I find initmidating in its size. Not that getting about isn%26#39;t easy, it just always hits me that one well-placed terrorist attack could do a hell of a lot of damage there. A confident traveller, as you see.
Of course, we arrived at VIE spot on time and I decided to repeat last trip%26#39;s travelling - in on the S7 and out on the CAT. Memo: if you arrive at VIE on the 15:40, the S7 is going to be very full by the time you get to WienMitte, I was a bit embarrassed at my luggage being in the way but kind Viennese ladies took the will for the deed as I tried to squash a hard-topped suitcase under a seat to try and make room for their legs.
And so to Karlsplatz. The Opera toilet still isn%26#39;t working, musically, but nevertheless (!) it was magical to scoot up the Oper escalator on to the ring - tastefully bedecked in streams of white Christmas lights - and sort of breathe a sigh of relief: %26#39;I%26#39;m here!%26#39; 2 minutes to the hotel and the very handsome owner, Herr Strafinger. At least, on both occasions that%26#39;s who I%26#39;ve assumed he is, he doesn%26#39;t look much like his photo on the website homepage - but how many of us do look like our photies? I think it%26#39;s the 3-piece suit that does it for me; you constantly expect a Kuess die Hand - but, sadly, I never got one. Seriously, Roley, you should give Suzanne a try! Still, he took my suitcase up for me, and I was back in the same room as February, 73.
I sat there, reflecting on a post in the Suzanne reviews page that the room and furniture was shabby, like visiting an odd, old uncle. While not for a moment mis-understanding the deliberate %26#39;shabby chic%26#39; of the styling, yes, the door was a bit bashed; and no, the wardrobe still isn%26#39;t tall enough for an opera dress (and makes a hideous creak, I%26#39;d open/close it in the morning, rather than disturb the whole hotel by opening it at night; and the water heater above the bath, with its curious little sump with the gentle drip, must fire the whole floor at the very least, it couldn%26#39;t just be responsible for my room - and I thought, well, maybe next time I will look at another hotel BUT - the room was immaculately clean and cleaned every day immaculately; the bed is very comfortable; lashings of hot water - Vorsicht! VERRY hot water, don%26#39;t engage the tap too ferociously!; the breakfast room is clean and bright and the breakfast plentiful; the waitress (who hadn%26#39;t been there in Feb.) was wonderful! what a bright and cheerful start to the day. And then, the location just can%26#39;t be beaten: leave room at 19:00, be in box at the opera by 19:09. I%26#39;ll definitely keep going back.
No musical entertainment the first night, so I went to the Christkindlmarkt at the Rathaus. First time I%26#39;d used the Ubahn by night, and all was fine, except I got hassled for money by a young woman. I saw a lot more police at Karlsplatz Ubahn than before and a lot fewer people hanging around - but I got hassled a lot more too; strange. I%26#39;d been expecting something tasteful and teutonic at the Christmas markets, so I was a bit surprised by all the plastic kitsch but it was still fun to walk around. I eventually screwed up my courage and got some maroni (yum) and a Kartoffelpuffer with Knoblauch. Didn%26#39;t know what Knoblauch was when I was offered it but took a chance. Very yum! I didn%26#39;t hang around too long, it was more the kind of place to go in two%26#39;s or groups and have a laugh and a smile at it all - that%26#39;s what everyone else was doing, anyway - there was nothing I wanted to buy. I chickened out of Karlsplatz on the way back and walked home from Stephansplatz instead, stopping at the only Punschstnad (Pr. Eugen) that sold it in plastic cups. MM MM, I took to Punsch! And, of course, Kaernterstrasse smells wonderful by night, with the Punsch and the Maroni.
And so to bed. And so, gentle reader, I go off now to collect the dogs from kennels. I love them dearly but it does add to holiday costs, having to kennel them every time. Put it this way, what I%26#39;ll pay for them today would have bought me another pair of earrings at Frey Wille.....
More later! Tschuess!
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Glad to hear you had such a nice time ... yes, it can be a scrum on the S7 but then I am a cheapskate, bring it on. If you catch the one at 06.00 or some ungodly hour they have a really swish train rather like the CAT and you can wheel your case straight in, funny how that doesn%26#39;t run during the day!
I admire you tackling the change at AMS: I am too much of a stewer to handle it, esp. if one is running late out of the UK airport (inevitably); I%26#39;m convinced I%26#39;ll miss me connexion! Too much stress. I%26#39;ll pay a premium to fly Aua out of Heathrow and get there in grumpy comfort.
I wonder what went wrong with the opera toilet. Maybe someone who loathed Strauss took to it with a hammer. I enjoyed whisking up the escalator to a tune, so I hope they fix it!
I would deffo try Suzanne - in fact I was eyeing it in connexion with a work trip I%26#39;m provisionally organizing (or, the Department%26#39;s Big Day Out, with Eis) cos the prices are so reasonable. But I can%26#39;t cope with a Badewanne. I just know I%26#39;d get jammed fast and have to call the handsome Herr Staffinger to hoist me out (the shame!) My legs don%26#39;t bend, like a dodgy Barbie doll, so it%26#39;s gotta be a Dusche!
And the chief selling point with Suzanne is its proximity to the Staatsoper - but when it all boils down I%26#39;m more of a Volksoper kind of gal so I prefer to stay in the nether regions of town; either Graben or Schwedenplatz. You might try Nossek for one trip; I think the price is about the same as Suzanne (and the Dusche is great!) I seem to go a lot on in the sweltering days of summer, too, so I particularly like the Pertschy chain because they provided the blessed minibar for stowing one%26#39;s cold drinks. Lessee, I%26#39;m in Christina in December, ditto April, and Pertschy in June, with a little foray to Nossek in May. Schwedenplatz is actually very good for the music venues though you might think it wouldn%26#39;t be - the Ring trams will take you round to the Staatsoper or Musikverein with minimum fuss, and for the Volksoper it%26#39;s easy to tram to the Schottentor and hop another tram there up the Wahringerstrasse.
Yeah, the Wien Christkindlmarkte are a bit that way. That%26#39;s partly why I like to go to Salzburg every year too because the markets there are quite fancy and the stuff they sell is beautiful (ceramics, crystal, loden clothes, and loads of lollies naturally!) I don%26#39;t like the bigger Wien markets by night so go during the day - but the little ones like Freyung and Karlskirche are not so plasticky.
You also seem to have struck some bad luck with the hassling; apart from a woman who always asks me if I%26#39;m looking for a maid when I go shopping on the Keplerplatz, I%26#39;ve not had much experience of that. Unlike Oxford, ugh.
I look forward to hearing your report on the opera/concert (hint hint)!
BTW I cancelled the Munich leg of my June trip. I ended up booking a hideously long trip to Salzburg in August because there was so much on at the Festival I wanted to hear (6 days, 6 events, woo hoo!) and I simply couldn%26#39;t do both ... drat and pother! Kremer playing Mozart%26#39;s violin concertos outdoes even Gruberova singing Norma for me, I%26#39;m afraid! The BSO were extremely helpful and let me cancel my pre-orders (I imagine it will be well oversubscribed anyway). I was interested to see that if you send a pre-order before 1 Feb they don%26#39;t treat them in order of arrival but actually treat it as a lottery so if there are more preorders than seats, just do it like a draw. So with luck you will get good seats regardless!
xr
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Rats. Drove all the way out to the kennels and they%26#39;re not up yet, the gates are chained shut. I%26#39;ll give them until 11 then ring them first!
Anyhoo:
on Thursday I went and collected my ticket for Ariadne. Explained to the man at the desk that I wasn%26#39;t coming to Traviata but I wasn%26#39;t expecting any money back, just to let him know there%26#39;d be a ticket spare.
I get cross at myself - in situations where I don%26#39;t quite know how the conversation will go, my German does really well. When I have to psyche myself up to what I want to say, it%26#39;s then it all comes out as goop. Didn%26#39;t do quite so well buying the ticket for the Dom concert in the Dom shop (the booth was not in service). I asked in German, he answered in English. What I hadn%26#39;t realized before though is how much English is a fall-back language. I%26#39;d always taken it that the attitude of those I spoke to was %26#39;Crap German, must be English%26#39; but I heard lots of French, Japanese, u/i European using English as the lingua franca. Still I%26#39;d prefer my German was better but heyho. First stop was the Schatzkammer der Deutschordenskirche - but it%26#39;s closed until next year. The church is good though, as is the Maltezer and the Kapuziner. I saw a lot of churches - and boy, were they fantastic! I went into the Kaizergruft too - that%26#39;s how to be buried in style! Although I%26#39;m not sure if I%26#39;d want teenage schoolgroups gawping at me for eternity!
On to lunch at Diglas, as per Roley%26#39;s instructions. I%26#39;m still not convinced I wasn%26#39;t at an improper table - the only sign on it said %26#39;no smoking%26#39; but it was set at a slightly odd angle next to the coat-stand on the left as you go in. I heartily recommend the Spinach and Feta strudel, very yummy. As this was to be the only meal of the day, I decided to go for pudding. I enquired as to the nature of Buchteln, and they seemed quite innocuous - little did I know that a serving was THREE Buchteln. Ich kaempfte - but they won and I retreated leaving them in possession of the plate!
The reason I wonder if it wasn%26#39;t a %26#39;real%26#39; table is by the time I came back from the loo there was a staff ledger spread out on the table ready to work on. So maybe it was a staff table. Oh well.
I went to the market in front of the Karlskirche - they seem to be doing a lot of re-construction there, and there were lots of police about.
On to Edita in the evening. Splendid seat in the Mitteloge!! If I ever get the chance/can afford it I%26#39;ll certainly go there again. Excellent view, great accoustic. Ariadne isn%26#39;t an opera I%26#39;d known and I%26#39;d assumed it was a big, tragic affair (until I read the synopsis last week). Cornelia Salje, en travesti as The Composer, was very good, and Adrianne Pieczonka as Ariadne was excellent. Wolfgang Schmidt, Tenor, was not as good but didn%26#39;t really deserve the Buhgewitterchen he got. Edita - well, my overwhelming thought was, %26#39;boy! can she work an audience!%26#39;. Yes, she was very good indeed, her main aria very full of trills and her keynote floating pianissimi but there was very much a feeling of this was the whole point of the opera, and that everything else was just a means to her end. There was a 5 minute ovation for the aria. It was extremely good - but not that good; but good on her! Vienna obiously lover to bits. I don%26#39;t know the opera well enough to know how old Zerbinetta should be but at 59 Gruberova%26#39;s portrayal had a melancholy about it, an older woman still playing the coquette, than would have been the case with a younger singer.
Mitteloge also means you can be first in the refreshment rooms! That was nice, not having to queue, and lovely having those wonderful rooms to promenade through.
The only thing that threw me on the way in, is that the Garderobe on the Ubahn side is no longer there! It%26#39;s now a cafe, and it took me a while to locate the other one. Still, it was only 9 minutes from room to box, good old Suzanne!
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How aggravating about the kennels! (I have this vision of you clutching the fence while your canine pal lolls at ease on a velvet cushion, having a nice-long Sunday lie-in!) I%26#39;m stuck at work, of all things - hence the repeated postings!
Most of my German conversations become unravelled once I get past %26quot;Grüss Gott!%26quot; ... I%26#39;ve learned to grin and bear it when people respond in English ... knowing that after putting in all that hard work learning a language, they%26#39;re probably busting to try it. I can mostly manage conversation that runs on tramlines (%26quot;hello I have come to pick up my ticket%26quot; shoves receipt thru bars etc). I did have an actual conversation with a sweet man in a shop in Salzburg who was outrageously flattering about my accent etc which of course made me pleased enough to witter on at length ...
Glad you enjoyed lunch at Diglas! I%26#39;m trying to picture the table in my head - is it the tiny round one by the coatstand, directly to the right of the door as you enter? If so I%26#39;ve sat there myself. It has a very good view of the kitchen. The kitchen is worth looking at on weekends. I won%26#39;t incriminate myself further ...
Well, duh, naturally three Buchteln! You wouldn%26#39;t expect them to come over all English and just give you the one! (like this good but incredibly mean Slovak restaurant we have in Oxford). I admit, mostly I go to Diglas for the Konditorei, and don%26#39;t bother so much with the meals. The coffee is too good to leave to the end of the meal when you might not be able to squeeze it in!
Glad you enjoyed Ariadne! I wouldn%26#39;t know it if it jumped up and bit me on the .... so I%26#39;ll take your word for it. I have a recording of Gruberova singing Koenigin der Nacht on a Harnoncourt recording of Zauberfloete (which I do know reasonably well) and I found that her voice was ... not to my taste. Which probably says something about my taste! It%26#39;s very clean - but perhaps I am so used to the operetta style of singing (belted out fortissimo) that I like something a bit fuzzier round the edges. Uh, noticeably lacking in vocabulary to describe what I mean. If I say that my favourite soprano is Sylvia McNair maybe that will convey something. Probably that I am entirely ignorant of these things! And I%26#39;d need to hear more Gruberova to judge anyway; the part lends itself to that style of singing (tho I really enjoyed Milagros Poblador in that role at a Staatsoper performance in September).
Thanks for the tip about the Garderobe - that%26#39;s the one I usually use too so I suppose there%26#39;ll now be a fearsome scrum round the one on the other side ... are there any upstairs? I don%26#39;t specially like lugging coat up and down tho ...
So how cold were you in Steffl? Hopefully not very!
xr
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My problem is a good accent but limited vocabulary. Actually, it%26#39;s the genders of words that tie me up in knots. It%26#39;s not that I don%26#39;t understand the principle, I guess I just think it must sound really dumb to get it wrong. Dunno. I also sometimes get my languages muddled. I wanted to sympathize with the manager of Suzanne as I left, as it appeared he had a cold. Il s%26#39;est enrhume in French but all that sprang to mind in German was beruehmt, which is something else entirely. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Diglas - no, as you go in the door and turn left, there%26#39;s a hat stand. Left a bit more and there%26#39;s a table in the window. Kind of at 90* (don%26#39;t seem to have a degreee sign on this keyboard) between the two was this solitary table. It had a bit of banquette at one side, agin the wall, a chair facing the banquette, which would have stuck one%26#39;s a--e a bit too far into the restaurant, and another chair at 90* to that. Opposite this chair was the hatstand. It didn%26#39;t say Stammtisch, it didn%26#39;t say anything and neither did the waiter.
The Dom was cold but not AS cold as I%26#39;d feared. After all, I AM an Anglican..... I%26#39;d padded up with longjohns on top of socks and another pair of socks on top, a T shirt under the high-necked jumper, a fastened cardigan, a wool coat, a hat, a scarf and 2 pairs of gloves. I had to take the hat off - every time I looked up the brim caught on my collar and it was worth a cold head to look up, as the east end was beautifully lit, far more visible than by day. I didn%26#39;t really need the gloves inside either but was glad of the socks and longjohns.
It was a simple programme of music, with a couple of Advent readings. I didn%26#39;t catch any of the second one%26#39;s meaning but the first one, which was very long, had a lot of presents stacked up in it and someone buying the best red candle he could find. It was a string quartet, sometimes with flute, and very good. They played the pieces advertized, gave us a burst of Boccherini from the Sunday programme (I suspect they were under-running because, as nothing was announced, the audience were no more musically educated than I and didn%26#39;t always clap at the end of pieces, not knowing whether it was the end of a piece or of a movement), a quick Es ist ein Ros%26#39; enstprungen and O Tannenbaum and finished, as advertized, at 21:45 (20:30 start). It was very atmospheric though; great smell of incense when we went in, beautiful surroundings and great music. Even the umpteen Americans with flash photography couldn%26#39;t quite detract. In case anyone wonder, I knew it was American flash photography because the photographers would discuss in loud voices during the music as to whether it was OK to take a picture or not.
Dogs retrieved. I rang every 10 minutes for 2 hours and got no answer. Owner says she was up and doing way before 10 but husband had forgotten to unchain gate. Anyway, all%26#39;s well. A little food shopping now and slob out today and tomorrow and that%26#39;s my holiday entitlement gone for another year. But in Wien! That%26#39;s the way to do it!
When I get back with my carrots, I%26#39;ll tell you about wimping out in Frey Wille! Oh and about tearing the cafe in the Grand Hotel off a strip.
Can one attach photos to messages? I%26#39;d love to post the great one I got of the Ringstrasse Billa!
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Do you really think they notice gender ... I mean, can you pick out the gender when they%26#39;re speaking to you? Most people seem to mumble! As for the manager I probably would have banged two rocks together and grunted, %26quot;Du bist krank! Schade! Hoffe besser schnell!%26quot;
I never turn left in Diglas. I puzzled over this briefly and then recollected that the cakes are to the right ... that explains it. Rol see cake. Rol go towards cake. But I have seen people sitting at that table. You just have to shoehorn yourself in in Diglas - I%26#39;m always getting someone%26#39;s chair shoved in me back. But I don%26#39;t think a table so close to the door would be a Stammtisch - too draughty!
Er, yes, with that lot on probably the Dom didn%26#39;t feel too cold after all! I%26#39;m still coming to grips with this clothing malarkey (said the south-sea islander). I loathe wearing pounds of clothes and then going into a store and having to rip them all off before I faint. Tedious. At least Austrian shops tend not to be so ferociously hot as British ones (nor is the Ubahn as overheated as the tube).
But the concert sounds lovely. The one I went to was more of a straight concert - I think there might have been a reading but I sank briefly into a cold-related coma at that point. And there weren%26#39;t any tourists - it might have been quite a late start, I think, I remember coming out about 23.00 and it was snowing hard so perhaps that put them off. Certainly no one taking pictures. I wish they made cameras without flashes and you had to buy a flash specially if you wanted one. They%26#39;re not necessary most of the time and will just throw your exposure off if trying to photograph the interior of a big dark building. Sigh. I just about strangled a woman last time I was in the Riding School who just wouldn%26#39;t let it alone. Take that stupid box off your face and LOOK! And though I might photograph a venue before or after a performance, I would *never* take a picture with or without a flash during! aaaughhh!
I look forward to the account of Frey Willie and Ailidh vs. Grand Cafe! (I had choc there last time I was in Wien, v. nice it was too).
I don%26#39;t think we can post photos except of hotels, sadly. I can%26#39;t imagine what you were up to in the Ringstrassa Billa! (I%26#39;m always marching round and round looking for the Zelten!)
xr
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Ah, well the Billa checkout lady clearly thought I was unbalanced dietetically, if nothing else - I came out with 2 huge Stollen (neither for me), a chocolate Bishop (I know it%26#39;s Nicolo, just the thought of a choclate Bishop amused me, I took it round to the Platonic Man last night, he%26#39;s a priest too), and a tiny Tiroler Zelten, as recommended by you! Oh yes, and a bundle of chewstix for the dogs!
Genders - yes, I overplan what I%26#39;m going to say. Only a few years ago that I learned not to worry too much in English, give me time!
I made 2 attempts on the Cafe Central. I know it%26#39;s touristy, that%26#39;s why I wanted to suss it out. One late afternoon for The Meal - no chance and would die of passive smoking. One mid-morning - no chance. Quite a few reserved tables, maybe tourgroups go in en masse.
Yesterday, Gott in Himmel, was it only yesterday? I had The Meal in Palffy (the cafe, not the palace) on Stallburg. It had quite a few empty tables but warm and friendly and nice food, a fairly small menu, it seemed. I had goulasch with potatoes. Nice goulasch, left most of the potatoes to make room for Mohr im Hemd, of which I%26#39;ve often heard but never found. Couldn%26#39;t conceivably finish that either - in fact Vienna scuppers me, foodwise, and for a lifetime member of Weightwatchers, SlimmingWorld, YouAreWhatYouEat, CarolVorderman%26#39;sDetox, YouNameItI%26#39;veDoneIt (failed), that%26#39;s saying something! Nice Einspaenner coffee too, although in a tiny glass cup, I%26#39;d thought that was a tall drink?
If you like fancy, Palffy is certainly not it; but clean (obviously), friendly and reasonable; lots of tourists but a fair smattering of (what I took to be) locals too. Punsch, Goulasch, Mohr and Einspaenner for under 20 euros, seemed good to me for the heart of the city.
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ps, Roley, I%26#39;ve just sent you the billa pic for fun - sorry, it%26#39;s huge!
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Palffy’s not bad – was that part of your Frey Willie excursion? Go on – spill those beans! I think it’s a Real Cafe patronized by real people as opposed to Tourist Central. Bit like the Braunerhof – I like that too but yeah, the coffee in such places is kind of low key compared with the billowing fluff one gets elsewhere.
My brain and mouth disconnected a long time ago; I’ve given up trying to tie them back together.
I wonder what the Billa lady thinks of me when I struggle to the counter with about four Zelten, two Kletzenbrot, and a Stollen? Probably “Back up the truck!” I swear I bought 10kg of that stuff back from Salzburg (urp!)
The meals are rather a challenge when one is on a low (British) diet. I could eat for Ireland meself but I have now admitted my old-lady digestion can’t cope with lavish Austrian portions. So I divide my meal in two: main at lunch, pudding around 4.30 to fuel whatever concertgoing I may be doing that evening. Puddings being so delightfully digestible (I never met a creamcake I didn’t like). It’s harder choking it down when you’re alone tho – I ate far more when I was there with a friend in Sept. You notice quicker that you’re full when you’re on your own!
Billa gave me the giggles. All I can say is, ack! SPANGLES!! So far I’ve only reached the top of the staircase – the download is tantalizing me thinking of all the riches below ... but it’s so fantastically Christmassy isn’t it? Did you see the advent crown on the Graben? And what have they got in the window in Diglas? The year I was there for St Nicholas’s Day, they had a Krampus made entirely of prunes. It was reeevolting (loathe prunes) but clever!
What did you think generally of their version of Christmas? I always really enjoy it – but that might just be the tourist insulation from the more aggravating bits (attempting to go Christmas shopping in Oxford today I wanted to cut my own throat after about half an hour). But I like the fact they still have traditions – other than maxxing out the credit card.
I can see the bakery! slaver!
Rol, suffering pangs of heimweh (or rather abroad-weh)
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